Congregants of the Lutheran and Methodist churches in Burdick gathered for a time of intercessory prayer Sunday night. Their plea? Rain.
We dont need just a couple of inches worth. We need bucket-fulls, relayed former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum-Baker, who has retired to her ranch there.
Kassebaum-Baker said her son, Bill, who works the ranch, read from William Lindsay Whites 1935 editorial, A Prayer for Rain, at the service.
White, son of Emporias sage, W.A. White, wrote the eloquent piece during the height of the Dust Bowl Days.
Reasoning that he was a dutiful Christian, White said he felt qualified to personally address God in the matter.
The piece begins: O Lord, in Thy mercy, grant us a rain, and by that we dont mean a shower. We want to go out in our car in the early evening and watch the lightning go ripping across the southwestern sky in hot blue forks as the fat clouds roll in on us from Chase County.
We want to hurry home to close the house with the first fat drops the size of marbles on a suddenly rising wind, chasing us and plunking on the hood of our car.
We want to scramble all over the house just as the first sheets descend, frantically slamming down the windows, while the drops thunder on the tin roof of the porch and lightning blasts illuminate the waving treetops.
O Lord of Hosts, we want to look out of the windows and watch the regiments of fat, close-paced raindrops march diagonally down in sheets, until we cant see the outlines of the street light on the corner and it looks like a great pale luminous ball through the driving drops.
For several hundred more words Mr. White begs his case, reminding us of the thrill of a good summer storm and how it tantalizes the senses.
OVER THE weekend, Gov. Jeff Colyer declared 50 of the states 105 counties as experiencing a drought emergency. The Kassebaums hometown is in an extreme drought, according to officials. Iola is abnormally dry at 2 inches shy of what is considered normal precipitation for this time of year. With prolonged heat, however, our situation could turn serious.
All around the world record high temperatures are being set, spurring wildfires, droughts and untimely deaths.
And though its not politically correct to mention science these days, the fact is mankind is playing a role in this climate change by our continued habit of burning fossil fuels and their release of carbon dioxide, which serves to trap the heat in the earths atmosphere.
No doubt we could boost the power of prayer by taking ownership of this fact and making a wholesale change to clean energy.
HERES OUR petition: Dear Lord, help us be better stewards of this beautiful planet that you have so bountifully created. And in cleansing us of our sins, could you do it with a gully-washer?
